Rostam Shares “Gravity Don’t Pull Me”

"Gravity Don't Pull Me" starts with a light pop flutter, like a song from Rostam's old band Vampire Weekend. But shortly after the one-minute mark, sharply programmed drums burst through the track and push it in a new direction. The singer is hearbroken here: I bite my lip and I hold my tongue and I wait for the pain to be gone/ But some days, some days, I still let it back in.

Rostam explained the genesis of the video in a press release. Read his words below, and watch the clip above.

After the release of the Discovery LP in 2009 I began to see people posting videos of themselves choreographing sections of songs from the album. It was then I realized I really wanted to make a dance video.

In 2010 I came across a YouTube video Jack Grabow posted when he was a senior in high school of himself improvising dance to the song “I Think Ur a Contra.” I was really proud of the drum parts I'd written for the end of the song and I felt like he was able to capture those rhythms in a serious way—I got a feeling he understood what I was getting at in a way that I wondered if anyone ever would.

In 2012 I finally got in touch with him about collaborating on a project. He was really into the idea, but I didn't know what the right song could be at that time.

When I finished a version of "Gravity Don't Pull Me" in the fall of 2015, Jack was one of the first people I sent it to. I was pretty clear on what I wanted – Jack to choreograph a dance to be mirrored by another dancer for a symmetrically shot performance on camera. He chose to bring in Sam Asa Pratt. The two had been in the same dance club in high school and I recognized Sam from a video he’d posted of himself dancing to the song “Osaka Loop Line” from the Discovery album.

The final version of “Gravity Don’t Pull Me” includes Sam and Jack performing the choreography they collaborated on and also improvised sections of the dance.